Piazza Affari closes above parity, with the Ftse Mib rising by 0.55% to 34,339 points. Nexi (+7%) and Prysmian (+4%) stand out after the results and confirmation of the guidance, while Bper (-3%) ends up at the bottom despite the accounts in line with expectations.
The Bank of England left rates on hold, with two out of nine votes in favor of an immediate cut. Yesterday, however, the Swedish Riksbank surprisingly lowered rates, highlighting Europe’s divergence from the hard line of the American Federal Reserve.
US data on jobless claims showed growth to 231,000, a sign of potential cooling in the labor market. A $25 billion 30-year Treasury auction is scheduled.
The BTP-Bund spread is stable at 133 basis points, with the Italian ten-year bond at 3.83% and the Bund at 2.49%.
Among raw materials, oil prices traded little with Brent at 83.7 dollars a barrel, following the decline in US inventories revealed by weekly EIA data.
On the Forex, the euro/dollar exchange rate stabilizes at 1.077 while the dollar/yen stands at 155.6 after the Japanese data on real wages, down 2.5%, which limits the possibility of a monetary tightening by the Bank of Japan.